. The old Count of Lara was prevailed upon to
go to the kalif at Cordova, bearing a letter from Velasquez which was
supposedly of political import, but which was intended to be the count's
death warrant. The kalif, loath to put so brave a knight to death, cast
him into prison. Soon after, he made an attack upon the Christians.
Velasquez gathered an army to oppose him, and succeeded in getting the
young Lords of Lara to join him. In the midst of the battle, Velasquez
and his whole army deserted, leaving the seven youths and a small
company of retainers to fight alone against the Moorish host. Taken
prisoners, their heads were cut off and sent to Cordova, where the kalif
was cruel enough to present them to their imprisoned father for
identification. Now let the ballad take up the story:

"He took their heads up one by one, he kissed them o'er and o'er;
And aye ye saw the tears run down, I wot that grief was sore.
He closed the lids on their dead eyes, all with his fingers frail,
And handled all their bloody curls, and kissed their lips so pale.

"'Oh had ye died all by my side upon some famous day,
My fair young men, no weak tears then had washed your blood away;
The trumpet of Castile had drowned the misbelievers' horn,
And the last of all the Lara's line a Gothic spear had borne.'

"With that it chanced a man drew near to lead him from the place,
Old Lara stooped him down once more, and kissed Gonzalo's face;
But ere the man observed him, or could his gesture bar,
Sudden he from his side had grasped that Moslem's scymetar."

Before the count was overpowered he had killed thirteen of the Moors,
and then he begged that he might be put to death; but the kalif, on
learning all of the details of the treachery of Velasquez, restored the
count to liberty and sent him back to his wife in the castle at Salas.
The fate of the revengeful Dona Lambra is not recorded, but it is to be
hoped that she was made to atone in some way for all her savage rage.

About Ximena and her far-famed husband Don Rodrigo, widely known as the
Cid, many marvellous tales have been told, and it is a matter for regret
that so many of them are purely legendary. According to one of the
traditions, which was followed by the French dramatic poet Pierre
Corneille when he wrote his famous play, _Le Cid_, in 1636, Ximena is
given a much more prominent place in the story than that accorded to her
in history. Acc